From Mayer Brown to Bucharest: A Chat with Mark Gitenstein

A few weeks ago, while on vacation, we unexpectedly fell upon an interesting opportunity — to visit the U.S. embassy in Bucharest and sit down for a quick chat with Mark Gitenstein, the newly installed U.S. ambassador to Romania.

Why not, we figured. Apart from finding out what his current job is all about, we thought we’d hear a bit more about his previous life, both as a lobbyist and partner at Mayer Brown in D.C., and as a lawyer on Capitol Hill, where he helped craft a variety of well-known pieces of legislation, from the Speedy Trial Act in 1974 to the original FISA statute. Gitenstein is also the author of Matters of Principle, a book on his experience managing the Judiciary Committee staff during the Robert Bork Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1987. Click here for the NYT story on Vice President Joe Biden’s speech while in Bucharest last month which mentions Gitenstein; here for the transcript of Biden’s speech; here for recent a BLT post on the Gitenstein/Biden relationship.

Here’s the way it went down:

Mr. Ambassador, thanks for taking the time. So you’ve been in the office for not that long. How’s it going?

You’re right; it’s been fairly short. I was sworn in by the Vice President in August, but my credentials weren’t accepted by the Romanian president [Traian Basescu] until early September. It’s interesting — at least something that’s probably interesting to lawyers — you’re not really am ambassador until your credentials . . .

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